Coronavirus Countries tighten measures -China

Seven local transmissions among 16 new cases in China

A Chinese government worker leading a group of citizens to take swab samples for the Covid-19 test in Tianjin yesterday, under a three-day screening programme for nearly three million of its residents.
A Chinese government worker leading a group of citizens to take swab samples for the Covid-19 test in Tianjin yesterday, under a three-day screening programme for nearly three million of its residents. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

SHANGHAI • China reported 16 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, down from 17 the previous day, with seven cases of local transmission and nine cases originating overseas, the country's health authority has said.

China's National Health Commission said yesterday in its daily bulletin that five of the local transmissions took place in Tianjin and two in Shanghai.

Tianjin, which neighbours the capital Beijing, was scheduled to launch a three-day screening programme covering nearly three million of its residents yesterday.

Local officials said on Friday that one community in Tianjin had been placed in lockdown and around 1,900 people have been quarantined, according to the China Daily newspaper.

In Hebei province, four residential communities and two villages in Luannan county, Tangshan, have been locked down after the local government received notice that one of the Tianjin patients, a 61-year-old man surnamed Yang, had travelled to the county, the local authorities said.

Mr Yang drove to the county last Sunday and left on Monday.

During that period, he visited relatives, had dinner with friends and shopped at various places.

Precautionary measures are being taken in Shanghai's Pudong district, city officials said yesterday.

The two new Shanghai infections involved a security inspector at Pudong International Airport and his wife.

But district official Li Guohua told a news briefing that there were no indications so far that these were linked to a previously reported local transmission involving another airport worker.

Mongolia yesterday reported four more locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 in its south-eastern Dornogovi province, according to the country's National Centre for Communicable Diseases.

Mongolia entered a state of public disaster preparedness and imposed a nationwide 24-hour lockdown from Nov 12 until Dec 1 after its first locally transmitted Covid-19 case, which was a woman, whose husband, a transport driver, returned from Russia and tested positive for the virus.

China has so far reported an accumulated total of 86,414 Covid-19 cases, with the official death toll at 4,634.

REUTERS, CHINA DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on November 22, 2020, with the headline Seven local transmissions among 16 new cases in China. Subscribe